Localytics offers free App Store optimization tool to grade your app

App marketing & analytics platform Localytics has developed a free App Store optimization (ASO) tool that will grade your app on various factors, in the process telling you what you need to do to improve your App Store rankings.

All you have to do to use the App Listing Rater is to type in your app name & select it when the tool searches & lists apps matching the name.

The results shown at the click of a button are divided into 8 categories such as name, reach, reviews, etc. You also get a cheat sheet as a handy reference to keep track of best practices. The tool will also take you through a series of tips & tricks & resources that will help you create a better listing & attract more users & downloads.

For example, if you type in Facebook, it shows you the main Facebook app, along with the Facebook Messenger & other Facebook apps. The main Facebook app gets a score of 75%. Facebook fares poorly for some factors related to the app name, which doesn’t have any keywords & is very short. Apps with a keyword in their names see a 10% ranking increase. On the other hand, the Facebook name isn’t so long that it gets cut off in App Store search listings. The name is also very unique, enabling users to identify & separate it from other apps without any confusion.

Facebook fares very well in the description, icon, screenshots, updates & the number of ratings. The App Listing Rater tool suggests that Facebook needs to do more to fix bugs & improve features to increase users’ ratings of the app.

Also, the ‘live’ version has a lower rating than previous ones, which suggests the new version has bugs that need fixing or user suggestions to be implemented. Either way, the tool offers a pro tip that “after a new release, consider sending users an email or in-app message elaborating on important features & asking for their feedback.”

Facebook also does well in terms of pricing & reach, considering it’s free & available in multiple languages, & compatible with the most recent iOS updates, which means the app is available to a wider range of users regardless of their iOS version.

So you can see how a similar analysis of your app by the App Listing Rater tool can help with your own App Store optimization efforts.

Boston, US-based Localytics was founded in 2009 by Raj Aggarwal, Henry Cipolla, Brian Suthoff & Andrew Rollins. Raj is the company’s CEO while Henry is the CTO. Brian Suthoff is the chief strategy officer. Localytics has raised nearly US $60 million, including a recent US $35 million Series-D funding round in March 2015.